When Secrets Strike. Marta Perry
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OUT THERE. Sarah Bitler smiled, thinking of her mother’s familiar goodbye as Sarah had climbed into her buggy this morning. Mammi always said the same thing when any of her family left her sight. She’d really rather they stay safely on the farm, even Sarah, who was nearing thirty and had long since been accepted as a maidal, an old maid, by their Pennsylvania Amish community.
What was there to be careful of on this peaceful back road that wound between Amish and Englisch farms on its way to the town of Laurel Ridge? The route took a bit longer to reach her quilt shop than if Sarah had gone by the main road, but was worth it to keep her mother from worrying.
“Mamm is being a little silly, ain’t so, Molly?” She could talk to her buggy horse out here without fear of being overheard. “There’s not even a storm cloud in the sky today.”
Molly flickered her ears in response to Sarah’s voice and then broke stride. The mare tossed her head, snorting.
“What are you—”
Sarah stopped, seeing a few seconds later what Molly had sensed immediately. Smoke, snaking its way up between the trees ahead of her.
“Someone burning trash, that’s all.” But doubt threaded her words. There was too much smoke for that, surely. Hard on the thought she saw the sparks shooting upward, landing among the trees. Her heart thudded in her chest.
Fire. The one thing that farmers feared most, especially in a dry summer like this one. She slapped the lines, sending the mare surging ahead. She’d have to see for herself what was burning.
Around the next curve in the winding road, the source was visible. Flames licked the back wall of a barn, and smoke billowed upward, fanned by the summer breeze. An unused barn, thank the gut Lord, part of the property belonging to an elderly widow who lived in town. No animals were in danger, at least, but if the fire spread—
Sarah froze for an instant, undecided. Race to the nearest phone to call for help? Or check first in case someone needed help?
A glimpse of the small cottage near the barn decided her. The cottage wasn’t empty—Mrs. Everly let Gus Hill live there in exchange for keeping an eye on the property. Sarah had to be sure he wasn’t in danger.
Turning an unwilling Molly onto the lane, Sarah touched her with the buggy whip, and they bucketed up to the cottage. Sarah jumped down from the buggy seat and raced to the door, her breath coming quickly. If Gus was there, surely he’d have smelled the fire by now. Unless he’d somehow provided himself with a bottle, in which case he could well be passed out and unaware of the danger.
“Gus! Gus Hill! Are you in there?” Sarah pounded on the door, glancing toward the flames that licked at the barn roof. “Gus!” She twisted the knob, and the door swung open.
A quick glance around the two littered rooms told her that wherever Gus was, he wasn’t here. But the barn—
She ran back outside. The fire ate greedily at one corner of the roof, sending a shower of sparks toward the trees. He surely wasn’t in there. He couldn’t be. She should hurry to the nearest phone. But she couldn’t, not without being certain.
Her breath catching, Sarah raced to the barn. The heat radiating from it was terrifying, but she had to look—had to be certain Gus wasn’t in there. She grabbed the hem of her apron and held it over her mouth and nose. Eyes watering, she peered through the open doorway.
Empty—not even any old hay bales to feed the fire. And no crumpled body lying unconscious, either.
A timber crashed, flaming, to the barn floor, sending a trail of fire heading toward her. Sarah spun, fleeing to the buggy, not needing to use the whip to persuade Molly into a gallop. They jolted back down the lane, back around the bend. The Stoltzfus farm, that would be closest, and they had a phone shanty near their barn.
Molly raced up the Stoltzfuses’ lane, heading straight for their barn as if it were her own. Sarah halted the mare at the phone shanty, stumbled down and grabbed the receiver, hitting 911. By the time she’d gasped out the information to the emergency dispatcher, Ben Stoltzfus was running toward her from the barn, followed by three of his sons, while his wife, Miriam, hurried from the house, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Was ist letz, Sarah? What’s wrong?” Ben grasped her arm.
A fit of coughing seized her, and she could only point.
“Ach, how did we not smell it? Fire—the old Everly barn, ja?”
Sarah nodded, catching her breath. “I spotted it when I was passing. The sparks...” She didn’t need to explain the danger to Ben. He was already turning to his sons.
“Buckets and shovels into the wagon, quick. We must keep the fire from spreading until the fire truck gets here.”
Wide-eyed, the boys ran to obey. Ben raced for the paddock and his buggy horse.
Miriam had reached Sarah by then and wrapped her arm around her. “You’re all right? Komm, let me see. You didn’t burn yourself?”
“No, no, I’m fine.” A cough interrupted the words. “Just need a drink of water, I think.”
“For sure. Into the house, now.” Miriam glanced to the oldest of her daughters. “Emma, go and call the neighbors. Tell them the Everly barn is burning. Quick!”
Ten-year-old Emma paled, but she bolted to the phone shanty.
Suddenly weak in the knees, Sarah was grateful for Miriam’s arm around her as they headed for the farmhouse. Miriam, like any Amish mammi, clucked and comforted and scolded all at once as she gently shoved Sarah onto a kitchen chair and then set a glass of water in front of her.
“You rest a minute. I’ll start coffee. Lucky I have a couple of jugs of lemonade I can take over, too. The firefighters will need a drink.”
Sarah nodded, accepting Miriam’s automatic assumption that they would provide what was needed. It was what neighbors did.
“Maybe take drinking water, as well. I don’t know what the water source is over there.”
“Ja, that’s true.” Miriam bustled around, putting one daughter in charge of the baby and enlisting the other two in carrying jugs and cups to Sarah’s buggy.
“I looked for Gus Hill.” Sarah cleared her throat and took another gulp of water. “No sign of him.”
“He’s never one to hang around if there’s trouble,” Miriam said darkly. “I don’t know what Julia Everly pays him for looking after the place for her, but he’s not worth it, that’s certain sure.”
Reluctant as she was to speak ill of anyone, Sarah had to admit that Miriam was most likely right. Gus was a fixture in the township, well known for his talent for getting by on the least possible effort.
By the time the buggy was loaded, Ben and the boys had already taken off in the wagon. The wail of a siren pierced the air. The fire truck roared by, followed by the usual cars and trucks carrying extra volunteers. Most of the able-bodied men in the area belonged to the volunteer fire company, both Amish and Englisch. Like Aaron King.
Sarah shoved the name to the back of her mind as she and Miriam drove Sarah’s buggy in the wake of the volunteers. She had no right to be more concerned for Aaron than for any other of her Amish brethren. Now if she could only convince herself of that fact...
By the time they reached the Everly property, the barn was fully engulfed. Figures in yellow protective gear swarmed around it, but Sarah could see they were more intent on keeping the fire from spreading than on trying to save the structure. It was too late for that.
Molly whinnied, shaking her head nervously, so Sarah led her a short distance away and tethered her to a tree. Miriam had shoved a folding table into the buggy, behind the seat. They pulled it out and began setting thermoses and jugs on it.
Scanning the firefighters, all so alike in their gear, Sarah couldn’t deny she was searching for Aaron. She caught a glimpse